How do I take my medication during Ramadan?

Detailed answer

Swallowing a tablet or liquid medicine breaks the fast, so the usual approach is to take your medicines between iftar and suhoor. Many treatments can be adjusted safely, but only a doctor or pharmacist can tell you how. Speak to them a few weeks before Ramadan, and never stop or change a medicine on your own to keep a fast.

What Islam says

Islam does not ask you to put your health at risk. The sick are excused from fasting: "whoever among you is ill or on a journey, then an equal number of other days" (Al-Baqarah 2:184). If you need to take medicine by mouth during the day, you count as ill: you do not fast, and you make up the days later, or give fidya if you will never be able to fast.

Ask your doctor or pharmacist about

• Once-daily medicines: these can often be taken at iftar or suhoor instead.
• Twice-daily medicines: these can often be split between iftar and suhoor.
• Three or more doses a day: sometimes a long-acting version can be taken once or twice instead. If not, you may be advised not to fast.
• Medicines that must be taken with food or at fixed times: ask how to plan them around your meals.

What does not break the fast

According to most scholars, several kinds of treatment do not break the fast, so you can use them during the day:

• Injections that do not nourish the body, including insulin; see injections.
• Creams, gels and skin patches, and eye drops.
• Standard asthma inhalers, according to many contemporary scholars; see inhalers.

Tablets and syrups that are swallowed do break the fast; see taking a pill.

Tips

• Set alarms on your phone for your iftar and suhoor doses.
• Keep your medicines and a glass of water by your bed for suhoor.
• Bring all your medicines to the appointment and write down any changes your doctor agrees.
• If you feel unwell after a change, contact your doctor straight away. Breaking the fast is allowed.

Looking after your health is part of caring for the trust Allah has given you.